My Chaplaincy Journey

The new Chaplain Candidate and his family

My "Family of One" is getting set to serve an "Army of One." I was recently (May 26th, 2005) commissioned as a 2LT - Chaplain Candidate in the Arizona Army National Guard. The Lord worked in some mighty encouraging ways to get us this far.
It's funny how patient God remains at times. I reckon its all the time but it seems He's more patient perhaps when you are experiencing that patience (intensity?). I was discipled early on in my Air Force career. I became a believer in September of 1990 at George AFB in SoCal (now closed). Shortly after (January-ish), I surrendered for full-time vocational ministry under a series of evangelistic meetings led by Steve Pettit. My discipleship from there, coupled with a poor pre-conversion Air Force chapel service, discouraged my involvement with chaplain ministry. "Man, you gotta work with other faiths too much," was my basic thought.
Chaplain ministry in my mind was fraught with too many "compromising" situations. Really, it seemed the only other significant method of dedicated military ministry was establishing local churches near installations. That's exactly what I sunk myself into at Victory Baptist Church in California City, CA - outside of Edwards AFB. What great, satisfying ministry there in the Mojave desert.
Time for base closure and off to Arizona I traveled. Luke AFB was my next stop. My pastor (missionary) had been supported by Tri-City Baptist of Dr. Singleton fame - so... I began to attend all the way across town in Tempe. As I finished my stint with the USAF and attended Tri-City, I settled in and finished my undergraduate work at International Baptist College and immediately both took a small recovery work here in Apache Junction as well as chiseled away at my MABS.
Rough and tumble it was for 3.5 years as a pastor. As we came to a do or die point for the church, we decided to "die" and dissolved the work. Knowing I wanted to pursue doctoral lunacy, I jumped back into a schooling mode and reenlisted in the Army National Guard to fund it. What joy it was to discover, I was just as likely to deploy overseas with the National Guard as with the Reserves (which is specifically why I decided against the Reserves). I remember it well...(fade to a dream sequence here) I thought to myself, "The Reserves, they go to war. The National Guard, well they fight forest fires, help flood victims, they don't go to war! I've got a family who needs me here right now."
During my first few months on drill weekends I came across a Soldier Magazine article that told of a West Virginia National Guardsman that was killed in Afghanistan. "Strange," I mused. Then one Friday evening, I received a phone call from my first line leader - "Hey, get in here. We're conducting a 'Raging Bull'"
I was already on my way in and said it was no problem, that I'd be there shortly. When I arrived, we were placed in formation and told, "You are not to leave, you've been placed on alert status."
I'm not one for freaking out, but I thought I'd try it just once. So it began to dawn on me... and no sooner had I begun to see my potential "sandbox" destiny, then we were placed in formation again - "You've been placed on mobilization status. You can't leave tonight." (Those of you familiar with this process in the NG understand that it is usually months in between Alert and Mobilization statuses - for our Company it was hours).
Fortunately for my family, by the end of the weekend my compatriots were shipping out, but I was unable as I was untrained. Not only that, this is the time I discovered the Chaplain Candidate program. Lo and behold, at least while I was in school I would be a "non-deployable" asset. I'll go if I gotta go, but I don't want to beat my family up in the process. This sounded great.
Long story shortened - I got into a wreck, totaled my van, and as a result was able to land a job (full-time) in which I was not only encouraged to attend school, but the schedule was family friendly. Here I am, today.
I am close to my required 72 hours and hope to be accessioned in the Spring of 2006 as a full chaplain.
If you're in the praying mood and our family's name floats across your mind, please pray for us - we're unsure if God would like us to make the leap to full-time Acitve Duty chaplaincy or stay here in AZ and pastor a local church and be a weekend warrior chaplain.